Monday, 28 February 2011

Woman files complaint after attack

via CAAI

Monday, 28 February 2011 15:02 Chhay Channyda

A villager in Ratanakkiri province’s Lumchor commune filed a complaint to the Ministry of Interior’s Centre for Justice Services in O’Yadav district on Friday, charging that she was injured in an attack by two women from whom she had entered into a personal business arrangement.

Choek Neng, 47, said on Friday that she sustained severe injuries during the attack on February 9 and was treated in hospital until her release on February 21.

She said her two alleged attackers, who she identified as a mother and daughter in the employ of Keat Kolney, sister of Finance Minister Keat Chhon, struck her on the head and stuffed papers into her mouth when she asked to see documents related to a personal debt.

Choek Neng said she owed her alleged assailants more than 2 tonnes of cassava but that she had already repaid more than 1 tonne and had asked to see the records of the balance still owed when she was attacked.

Her complaint to the Centre for Justice Services seeks compensation for medical treatment, which she said totalled more than 1 million riel (about US$250).

“When they hit me, I did not hit them back. So I filed a complaint to commune police, but no action has been taken,” she said.

Ha Sann, deputy chief of Lumchor commune police, denied on Friday that no action had been taken and suggested that Choek Neng’s injuries could have been the result of a prior medical condition.

“I’m not ignoring [the case], but I will wait to see the results from the hospital, which revealed her injury was because of a past disease,” he said.

He added that Choek Neng suffered from convulsions, which may have caused her to be nervous when she had a quarrel with her alleged attackers and made her fall to the ground.

Vay Vannla, head of the Centre for Justice Services in O’Yadav, said that he had received the complaint and would ask both parties to reach a compromise before sending the case to court.